Beirut cease-fire breached in a day

Press, 12 April 1984, Page 10

Beirut cease-fire breached in a day

NZPA-Reuter Beirut Efforts to restore peace to Beirut met a new setback yesterday when Christian gunners shelled the Muslim residential sector of the city for the third time in five days. The 40-minute bombardment caused panic in the streets in the Muslim west side, starting fires and killing or wounding an unknown number of people. From east Beirut, the Right-wing Falangist radio said that 40 people had been injured and several fires started in five hours of shelling of the Christian area before the gunners of the Christian “Lebanese forces” militia fired back.

The shelling, one day after rival forces had formally endorsed a plan to disengage forces along the Beirut frontlines, underlined the fragility of efforts to establish a cease-fire as a prerequisite for political discussion. The “Lebanese forces” have now bombarded the west three times since Saturday saying each time that it had been in retaliation for Muslim shelling of east Beirut, which had continued for months.

Yesterday was the first time they had shelled without warning, after an angry statement on Tuesday by the militia’s high command that it was switching to a policy of instant retaliation.

The mutual terror shelling has overshadowed the disengagement agreement reached by a “higher security committee” of rival forces under the president, Mr Amin Gemayel.

Mr Gemayel is now betting on a summit meeting with the Syrian President, Mr Hafez Assad. Syria had sponsored the Swiss conference to end the fighting and get talks started on political reforms.

A meeting in Syria’s capital, Damascus, has been twice postponed in step with the deterioration in Beirut. Talks had been originally planned early this week but are now expected on Friday or Saturday.